Newton County, in coordination with Buffalo National River, will be closing a section of Newton County Road 5, also known as Cave Mountain Road, starting Wednesday, January 22 for road improvements. The closure will be in place from 8 a.m. – 4 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays. The road will be fully open to all traffic on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
The 2-mile closure will begin at the intersection of Highway 21 and Newton County Road 5, in Boxley Valley. This closure will impact one way to access the Whitaker Point/Hawksbill Crag Trailhead located on the U.S. Forest Service. The trailhead to Whitaker Point/Hawksbill Crag can also be accessed by gravel roads from Highway 16, west of Boxley Valley. This project will have multiple phases and is expected to last several months.
In November 2019, the Arkansas Legislative Council approved providing $1 million from the Governor’s discretionary fund for the Buffalo River Conservation Committee. The BRCC and subcommittee members selected four topic areas as the focus of the BRCC’s actions and funding: unpaved roads; cost-share programs for agriculture; water and wastewater system infrastructure; and tourism and tourism impacts.